9781422283738

Worshipping the Sun

  Ancient peoples worshipped the Sun, which   kept them  warm and made their crops grow.

Crossing the sky In their mythology the Egyptians said that Ra sailed across the sky each day carrying the Sun in a sacred boat. During the night he sailed through the underworld, before rising into the sky again next day. In ancient Chinese mythology, the Sun rode across the heavens in a chariot drawn by dragons. The ancient Greeks thought that their Sun god Helios drove across the sky in a horse-drawn chariot. Later, in Ancient Greece, the god Apollo came to be recognized as a

Sun worship dates back to the earliest civilizations, which grew up in the Middle and Far East. These civilizations developed after people began to farm for food around 8000 bce . The early farming peoples worshipped the Sun because they realized how much they depended on sunshine to make their crops grow and ripen. Sun worship was well established in the Middle East in Babylonia and Assyria and ancient Egypt by around 3000 bce . We know this from the first written records from

Sun god, although he was originally considered the

these civilizations. In ancient Egypt, the Sun god Ra became the most important figure.

god of light and purity.

∆ An Egyptian woman worships the Sun god, Ra, in a painting dating from about 1000 bce . Ra is often depicted as a man with a falcon’s head.

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